Does Your Small Business Have a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Do you have a disaster recovery plan for your small business? If not, you are in the same boat just like 71 percent of all small business owners. What is even more disturbing is that many of these small business owners have fallen into the trap of thinking that disaster recovery plans are not relevant to small businesses. 

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have re-evaluated their business continuity plans and to help them with that, Cbeyond Inc., a privately-owned SMB technology ally, has released five disaster recovery strategies that should help IT teams better ensure that natural and man-made disasters have little impact on business continuity.

The end of year is always the ideal time for businesses to evaluate their disaster recovery plans. To maintain continuous work capacity, Cbeyond (News - Alert) recommends that SMBs start planning now. This can be done by considering the technological and logistical steps that will ensure mission-critical data and applications are both protected and communication among important stakeholders is not disrupted. Quarterly reviews of your plans are recommended.

The second tip is to back-up your data off-site. A secure off-site backup solution will ensure that in the event of a disaster in the office, your critical business information is not lost and can be quickly recovered and business operations resume without a hitch.

Cbeyond also recommends that SMBs consider deploying applications in the cloud. Cloud facilities, as opposed to on-site servers, are more disaster-resistant than typical office locations. In addition, cloud service providers offer redundancy ensuring that your business information and applications have multiple backups in the cloud.

The fourth recommendation is evaluating redundant network connectivity options. Having a wireless backup system when the normal office network connectivity fails will increase the chances of maintaining communication in case of a disaster.

Finally, rerouting communications as necessary can be done where e-mails and phone calls can be forwarded to a personal cell or home numbers to ensure contact with customers and partners is maintained.

Cbeyond further assists with disaster prevention plans through its TotalCloud Data Center service and also in secure transition of critical data and applications off-site through its TotalCloud migration service. These services offer secure, affordable private offsite information storage and in helping businesses quickly resume operations without disruption.

For SMBs without a disaster recovery plan, these few fundamental, low cost steps can mean the difference between minimal disruption and permanently business closure.

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